1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to information technology (IT), and more particularly, to a universal computer product hardware configuration initialization handling method and system which is designed for use by computer products of various different models having different hardware configurations for the purpose of providing these different models of computer products with a universal hardware configuration initialization capability.
2. Description of Related Art
In the computer manufacture industry, it is a common practice for enterprise-class customers to order high-end computer products, such as network servers, workstations, desktop computers, and business-class notebook computers, that are to be manufactured based on customer-ordered specifications. In practice, different customers would typically give different specifications for their ordered computer products to be installed with specified hardware components. For example, customers may want their network servers to be installed with special types of peripheral interfaces, such as SCSI (Small Computer System Interface), ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment), SATA (Serial ATA), NIC (Network Interface Card), to name just a few. Furthermore, network servers are categorized into 1U, 2U, and 5U models based on the number of server units installed in a single chassis. Still moreover, network servers ordered by different customers may be installed with different types and quantities of hard disk drives, electrical fan units (for heat dissipation), motherboards, back planes, to name a few.
Because different models of computer products are vastly different in specifications corresponding to various different hardware configurations, it is a mandatory practice for the manufacturer to devise various different management control programs for use by network servers having different hardware configurations. However, since each management control program is specifically designed for use by a particular hardware configuration, the manufacturer needs to design a number of management control programs for use by network servers of various different hardware configurations. One drawback to this practice is that when a new hardware configuration is specified by the customer, the manufacturer needs to devise a new management control program for that particular hardware configuration. This practice is undoubtedly very tedious, laborious, and time-consuming and this highly inefficient and cost-ineffective to implement by the computer manufacturer.